Medical Professionals Happy As Japan Approves Its First Abortion Pill

The approval of Japan’s first abortion pill by a panel in the country’s health ministry is a significant development for reproductive rights, coming decades after other nations made abortion medications widely available.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare stated that the MeFeego Pack, an abortion pill manufactured by British pharmaceutical Linepharma, received approval from the ministry’s pharmaceutical board on Friday, April 21.

The service had first assembled in January 2023 to review the drug, prior to requesting people in general to present their perspectives through an online portal. The minister of health will now have final say over it.

According to NHK, a Japanese public broadcaster, the drug can be taken within nine weeks of becoming pregnant. It comes in two forms of pills. According to the report, 93% of participants in a clinical trial in Japan underwent a complete abortion within 24 hours.

The drug combines mifepristone and misoprostol, which the World Health Organization has listed as safe and effective for pregnant women on its Essential Medicines List.

Until now, just careful surgical abortion is accessible in Japan through two ways: the curettage method, which uses a metal instrument to remove tissue from the uterus, and the evacuation method, which uses a tube to remove tissue, according to NHK.

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The World Health Organization has called for curettage to be replaced by the evacuation method or medication like abortion pills because it is an “obsolete” method that is less safe and much more painful.

The US Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade last year, ruling that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion. The move also comes as reproductive rights and abortion have regained global attention. 

Since then, some states have made moves to expand access to abortions, while others have restricted it.

The country’s medical professionals celebrated the decision made by the panel on Friday online.

As per some health professionals in Japan, the endorsement of abortion pills was a potential chance to spread more prominent sex education and awareness about contraceptive methods.

Japanese activists have been pushing for quite a long time for approval of the pills, with comparative drugs made accessible many years ago in other countries as Japan falled at any point further behind.

Mifepristone, for instance, was initially approved in France in 1988 and the United States in 2000.

But others also pointed to the long road ahead, calling for greater protection for women.

Mihyon Song, another well-known Japanese obstetrician and gynaecologist, pointed to Japan’s controversial abortion laws, which require spousal consent – which activists have long argued denies women the right to make decisions on their own body.

Under Japan’s existing laws, women can only receive an abortion if a pregnancy “may significantly damage the person’s physical health due to bodily or economic reasons” or if they became pregnant due to rape.